8 Months and Other Happenings

I can't believe Carlisle is 8 months old. Carlisle is an extremely happy baby. He loves to smile and still loves having his picture taken. Its pretty funny, as soon as my camera comes out- he starts posing. Carlisle isn't crawling yet, but loves to sit and take in everything. If I put a toy near him, he will strech and stretch- if he can't reach it, he just looks for something else to play with. He is also starting to really "talk" and very loudly. He is saying "da da da", but not really in relation to Vance. He is finally back to sleeping through the night. He usually goes to bed around 7:15 and wakes around 6:00 a.m. We then usually just give him a pacifier and he will go back to sleep until 7 a.m. when we wake him. Carlisle loves to play peek-a-boo, grab my hair and/or earrings, and to listen to me sing "if you are happy and you know it". He isn't clapping along yet, we are working on it though. Carlisle still loves to eat and is eating puffs- although he makes a pretty funny face everytime he gets one into his mouth. He is not digging "Stage 3" food yet. We've tried Stage 3 a couple of times, and everytime he gets a big chunk, he looks at me as if to say "What in the world did you put in my food!".

Carlisle loves to stand up. Any time I go to sit him down, he stretches his legs out so you stand him up instead. He can hang onto things, but is not very sturdy. His favorite toys are still his jumper and exercauser. He loves his new activity table as well. He sits at the table and bangs away. Unfortunately (for Vance and I), the table has no off button. So while Carlisle loves the constant noises, we do not appreciate it as much. Here are his 8 month photos (taken on Sunday after church, a day late):

On Saturday, we took Carlisle to the zoo. The weather was perfect which meant the zoo was packed with people. Despite the crowd, we still had a good time, and Carlisle enjoyed being outside. I think he people watched much more than checking out the animals.

Here are some pictures from a week ago with Carlisle out enjoying the first "real" spring day. He hates to have the sun in his eyes, so the sun hat is a must.